The city withheld explosive allegations of racism other misconduct against two high-ranking NYPD cops accused of mistreating minority cops who failed to meet quotas for arrests of black and Hispanic people, a lawyer charged Friday.
The alleged incidents involving Assistant Chief Christopher McCormack and Deputy Inspector Constantin Tsachas emerged in Manhattan Federal Court through a lawsuit alleging the high-ranking officers imposed “collar quotas” disproportionately upon minority officers they supervised.
The cops’ attorney, John Scola, uncovered the allegations through a long legal effort to examine the supervisors’ records on race.
McCormack allegedly told a civilian, “N—er you are lucky that I didn’t Sean Bell you,” according to a memorandum of law Scola filed in the case. Sean Bell was killed by police the day before his wedding in 2006 in an NYPD fusillade of 50 bullets.
“McCormack then proceeded to stick his finger in the rectum of the complainant and threatened to hurt his disabled pregnant wife,” Scola’s memo said.
The allegations against McCormack became the subject of a Civilian Complaint Review Board complaint that eventually was deemed unfounded, the city Law Department said.
McCormack was also accused of “discrimination against a social worker” in a different CCRB complaint, according to the Scola’s memo. That allegation went to mediation and was not adjudicated, said a spokesman for the city Law Department.
Separately, Scola says in his memo, city lawyers withheld a 247-page NYPD Internal Affairs investigative report into allegations that Tsachas used “supervisors to discipline the officers to meet quotas and profile Black and Hispanic,” the memo reads.
A Law Department spokesman said the Internal Affairs probe included an investigation of claims — reported exclusively by the Daily News last week — that Tsachas ran a “collars for dollars” program in which cops who arrested black men were rewarded with more overtime.
“The allegations referenced in the IAB report involving Tsachas were found to be unsubstantiated,” the Law Department spokesman said.
Scola said he could not share the CCRB complaint or Internal Affairs report, which are both under seal.
Scola says the city withheld both documents for months, putting him at an unfair disadvantage in the case. He also claims city lawyers pulled other dirty tricks, including “purposeful” destruction of cell phones and memo books.
“The totality of the (city’s) actions are abhorrent,” Scola wrote.
The Law Department spokesman dismissed Scola’s complaints. “The plaintiffs continue to make baseless accusations. No evidence has been improperly withheld by the City,” the spokesman said. “The claims have no merit.”
Sgt. Edwin Raymond and three other cops claim in their lawsuit filed in 2015 that McCormack, while commanding officer at the 40th Precinct in the Bronx, and Tsachas, then the Commanding Officer of NYPD Transit District 34 in Brooklyn, imposed an arrest quotas system targeting black and Hispanic men. Raymond and the other officers say they were treated more harshly than white colleagues and denied promotions if they refused.
Asian, Jewish and white people — known as “soft targets” — were not to be slapped in cuffs, the lawsuit claims.
Since the alleged discrimination took place, McCormack and Tsachas have climbed the ranks of the police department.
With Graham Rayman
